Home made wind turbine/generator

[slowr w/o blowr]

I've been out of power a few times in the last month due to storms and mechanical failures on the power companys lines. I do not have a gen set, so pretty much everything grinds to a halt here at home when that happens. I started looking at buying a new honda generator and found its going to cost close to 2500 bucks to have something that can run my house without to many compromises. I'm not opposed to buying a generator, but wanted to look into other options. I came across a couple of writeups on a DIY wind turbine and its caught my attention.

Link--- How I built an electricity producing wind turbine

I live out in BFE country, so there is pretty much open fields in all directions N. S. and W. I don't have any wooded areas significantly close to me in those directions.

Can anybody direct me with their own personal experience as to how to put a system together and make it work.

What i am thinking of is 2- 500-750 watt wind turbines in conjunction with thin film solar panels eventually. I would have to have a significant deep cycle battery station, Have to be some sort of diode to keep the batteries from juicing the generators when there is no wind. Some sort of DC to AC converter and then some way to tie it back into the grid so that i can get the power company to pay me for my electricity. I intend on adding solar panels to the roof of my shop eventually, but for now just want to setup the wind turbines.

I don't need to be completely free of the power grid. but i would like to be able to keep my fridge cold, my furnace fan running and my satellite and tv up and going when the power is out. Not sure if i would be able to get my well to pump, its 220v. and i'm sure draws an assload of amps.

I've researched for a day or two, and feel like the more i look, the more options there are. I intend on building my wind turbines to keep costs reasonable.

Thanks for taking the time to read and help me out with your knowledge!

 

[N2DAMYSTIC]

There is a guy in MD here, saw it on the news that built his own turbine to power his house. On the news story they stated it cost him 75K. This was to free himself from the power company.

The project above looks pretty cool but definately deserves more research, or at least, it would require allot more then he did to do what you want. If 1 of those things could not power up his wife's hair dryer then I find it hard to believe 2 of them would power your home heating / AC system. Also, he is providing electricity to run 100 SQ feet of space verses the average 2000SQ ft home.

IMO you are better off with a $2,500 generator to do what you need. I looked into a Generator for my home and they were in excess of 8K. With the purchase of the batteries you would need to store enough power I would guess it would cost near, or more then the generator. Not claiming to know very much on the topic but based on what I read that is my take on it.

 

[pho_phizzat]

There is alot of people here that do that. The last guy I know that did spent over 50k on it. He seems happy with it but 50k is alot of money. Dont forget having to maintain the drives and batteries and what happens if it is dark and cloudy and no wind?

 

[Mr. Mach-ete]

A good place to start would be marine wind generators, I see them on sail boats around here all the time. I work with a company that installs Geothermal, PV, and Wind systems. We have installed 6 wind system of which 2 have not worked as designed. The 2 that failed were helical in design, noisy as hell and the bearings failed.

Storing the power with wind or PV is the big issue when going off grid. Having many deep cycle batteries to store the harnessed power then inverting it from DC to AC is another issue that needs to be addressed.

Most people that invest into these systems are in it to offset their existing electrical bills by coupling a special electric meter that runs backwards when the power being produced by the wind or solar unit is greater than the consumption inside the house. The power company reads the meter and sees you produce more power than consume, they reimburse the difference at the end of the month, or year depending on the power provider.

My advice for short term power outages, buy a small generator and tie it into your panel box with the help of a qualified electrician.

One more note, to go truly off grid you will need to engineer several forms of power harnessing. Wind generators, solar panels (photo votaic) solar thermal for hot water, a bank of deep cycle batteries and power inverters all tied into your electrical panel. This will cost a small fortune to engineer and install all the above. This is why I say just buy a small generator for short term power outages.

 

[slowr w/o blowr]

I'm not looking to go off the grid completely. I want to be able to power a few select items in my house while the power is out. While the power is on, i will be able to backfeed electricity into the grid and have the power company pay me for it. I do not have central AC, so all i would be powering is the furnace fan to blow heat throughout the house, as well as keep the fridge cold, power a few CFLs and keep my LED tv and Satellite running.

 

[crew_dawg16]

You might be surprised, your pump being wired 220v is going to cut the amps it needs in half vs. 110v.

It depends how big it is, I guess.

 

[thomas91169]

There is a guy in MD here, saw it on the news that built his own turbine to power his house. On the news story they stated it cost him 75K. This was to free himself from the power company.

lol so if his average power bill is $250/mo......itll take him 25yrs to break even.

 

[Sonic_GT]

lol so if his average power bill is $250/mo......itll take him 25yrs to break even.

That's one of the things I don't get either.

 

[N2DAMYSTIC]

lol so if his average power bill is $250/mo......itll take him 25yrs to break even.

Exactly! However, an all electric 3K SQFT home in this area is more like $500-1,000 per month to heat / cool. My house is mostly gas, Heat / Dryer / Water Heater and it still costs me $240 per month in electric.

 

[thomas91169]

Exactly! However, an all electric 3K SQFT home in this area is more like $500-1,000 per month to heat / cool. My house is mostly gas, Heat / Dryer / Water Heater and it still costs me $240 per month in electric.

my parents is 2500sq/ft with a pool that runs daily. Think the most we've seen was $450 in peak summer. Even then thats almost 14yrs it would take to break even.

 

[Lloyd Xmas]

I would love to have a wind turbine and a well..both are very costly. Anyone have any luck with a cheaper DIY solar panels?

 

[Njc0las]

Why not just solar charge a bunch of car batteries?

 

[Njc0las]

I would love to have a wind turbine and a well..both are very costly. Anyone have any luck with a cheaper DIY solar panels?

You can make your own for cheap.

 

[VirtualSVT]

Solar panels with a Diesel or Natural gas Generator.